The Cowichan Secondary School Piggies played their last game before the Island senior boys rugby playoffs at Shawnigan Lake School on Saturday, falling 54-0 to Surrey’s Lord Tweedsmuir.
“Unfortunately, we were completely outmatched against a very strong team,” Cowichan coach Tom Fogarty said. “They will go into the provincial tournament as one of the favourites for the Tier 1 AAA bracket. They were a big, well-conditioned group of athletes and their size and strength caused major problems for us both on attack and on defence.”
Nevertheless, Fogarty was impressed with the way his team responded.
“I was very proud of the heart and passion that our young team displayed,” he said. “We were able to dominate the scrums and lineouts, and overall play was positive. Even so, rugby is a physical game and with so many strong athletes at their disposal, they took advantage at every turn during the contest.”
The Thunderbirds will head into the Island playoffs as the second seed from the North Island zone. Their next game is against the South Island third seed, most likely Belmont Secondary, at UVic on
May 17. The winner of that game will move on to the Tier 1 AAA provincial tournament in Abbotsford on May 25-28.